1
Creation: History, Philosophy and Science
The main thesis of Dr. Morris in his book, The Long War Against God, is that every school and system of thought that is not based on “biblical creationism,” especially as this “creationism” is manifested in the “biblical reawakenings associated with the Reformation” (p.183), is evolutionary in nature. After much study and reflection I have come to realize that these words of Dr. Morris give us mostly half-truths and vast oversimplifications concerning the real state of things throughout history. Half-truths and vague generalities sound impressive and satisfy the superficial and unwary mind. But they are also very difficult to clarify and perhaps ultimately do far more damage and are far more dangerous than stark falsehoods.
While I am much indebted to Dr. Morris for the empirical science that supports the truth about Creation, at the same time I must take issue with his errors in doctrine and philosophy and not let them pass by without an attempt at correction and clarification, especially when they touch Catholic doctrine -- as every error ultimately does.
On page 208 of The Long War, Dr. Morris writes:
One of the great tragedies of Christian history is the perennial failure of Christian theologians and other leaders to heed the apostle’s warning [Colossians 2:8 against false philosophy] here. Again and again Christians have been ready to compromise the biblical revelation of creation with the evolutionary philosophy then in vogue. This was especially true as the early Christians adapted to Platonism, then in the early Middle Ages to Neoplatonism, and in the late Middle Ages to Aristotelianism, all of which were fundamentally pantheistic, humanistic, and evolutionistic.
I trust that the study of the Six Days of Creation, just completed, and straight out of the Fathers and Doctors of the early and late Middle Ages, will have disproven adequately enough, these highly prejudiced statements.
In the same passage, Dr. Morris states that “The only true philosophy, if we call it that, must be Christ-centered -- which means centered in the true God and Creator of all things.”
In addition to every other Doctor and Saint quoted in the previous chapters, there is this passage from St. Hilary of Poitiers (315-367)which I just recently came across:
For through the Lord Christ all things were created; and therefore it is His proper name that He should be the Creator. Does not both the reality and the title of His creative power belong to Him? Melchisedec is our witness, thus declaring God to be Creator of heaven and earth: "Blessed be Abraham of God most high, Who created heaven and earth." (Gen. 14-l9) Moses also is witness, saying, "I am the Lord thy God, that establish the heavens and create the earth. Whose hands have created all the host of heaven." (Hosea xiii,4. LXX) Peter too is witness, writing thus, "Committing your souls as to a faithful Creator." (1 Peter. 4:19) Why do we apply the name of the work to the Maker of that work? Why do we give the same name [of maker] to God and to our fellow-men? He is our Creator, He is the Creator of all the heavenly host. (De Trinitate. XII. 4)
St. Hilary is typical. For all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, Christ our Lord is the center of both the Old and the New Testaments, for all of the Old foreshadows and foretells His coming while the New Testament fully reveals and fulfills all that went before in type and prophecy. In the same manner, our entire theology of creation is Christological, for Creation was brought forth by God with the Incarnation in view, even if Adam had not sinned.
As for the heresies of Neo-Platonism known as gnosticism, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c 202) wrote his monumental Adversus haereses against this early Christian plague.
Etienne Gilson has a section on “The Platonism of the Fathers” in his History of ChristianPhilosophy in the Middle Ages (Random House, l955, pp. 93-94)in which he points out that there is an error of perspective in the very term “Platonism of the Fathers”:
For the Fathers of the Church, neither the truth of the faith, nor the dogma defining it, depended in any way on philosophy. In their mind, faith was the essential. The formula “The Platonism of the Fathers” would lead to an absurd interpretation if it were meant to say that the Fathers were Platonists. They were essentially Christian, that is to say, teachers of a doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, and not at all the disciples of a philosopher who conceived salvation as a natural reward for the philosophical exercise of reason.
If the formula is legitimate, it is in another sense. In point of fact, the Fathers of the Church openly adopted a definite position toward some Greek philosophies, and they judged them according as they could help them to achieve a rational interpretation of Christian faith. Now it seems difficult to deny that Plato offered himself as an ally of Christianity on several important points: the doctrine of a maker of the universe; of a provident God; of the existence of an intelligible and divine world of which the sensible world is only an image; of the spirituality of the soul and its superiority over the body; of the illumination of the soul by God; of its enslavement to the body and of the necessity for it to liberate itself; last, not the least, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and of a life beyond the grave where it will receive the reward or punishment for its acts. The list of these affinities could be lengthened, especially in the domain of theology properly so-called. The Fathers have discovered in Plato and in some neoplatonists, a more or less vague presentiment of the Christian Trinity, the Demiurge announcing the Father, the Nous corresponding to the Word, and the World Soul to the Holy Ghost. Besides, the whole doctrine of Plato was animated with such a love of truth and of those divine realities which every true philosopher strives to attain that one could hardly imagine a philosophy that would come nearer being a religion without actually being one. The Greek Fathers have felt this, and this alone would explain their predilection for a doctrine which, while it was not their own, appeared to them as the most easily assimilable by Christian thought. In the course of this task of assimilation errors were the more to be expected as Christian dogma itself was then in the process of being formulated; the fact remains, however, that most of these acquisitions have been immediately definitive, and that even where it was calling for rectifications, Platonism has been a wholesome challenge for Christian speculation to seek a philosophical formulation of its own truth.
The same must be said about the influence of Aristotle in the 13th century when the total body of his work became available in Latin. His major error, that of an eternal world, was immediately and universally rejected and the doctrine of creation ex nihilo and with time was emphasized. That God created all things out of nothing is evident in all the Fathers, as we have seen, and Saint Hilary of Poitiers in the early 4th century, said of God that He is “eternally anterior to time, for time is His creature.” (De Trin, 11.6)
Dr. Morris is woefully ignorant of subjects that he should be fully aware of in order to write the kind of book he has written in his Long War.
Dr. Morris says that “Satan’s long war against God is founded upon the premise of evolution and is implemented through a wide-ranging variety of applications of evolutionism in every area of human thought and life.” (p. 304)And again, “Darwin and the other nineteenth-century evolutionists made no great scientific discovery, but merely revived ancient paganism in a modern form. (p.207) Finally, “The essential attribute of an evolutionary concept is that it identifies ultimate reality with the universe of matter, space, and time, rather than with the transcendent Creator of that universe.” (p. 207)
The only sentence in these three passages that may rightfully be called entirely truthful is that "Darwin and the other nineteenth-century evolutionists made no great scientific discovery..." The inaccuracy of the rest I hope to show in the following pages.
Chronology [B.C.][*]
Creation …………………………..4004-3
Adam dies…………………………3073
Enoch translated………………….3016
Seth dies……………….…………..2961
Noe born…………………………….2947
Global Deluge……………………...2348
Tower of Babel and Dispersion..2250-2198
Job …………………….………….2100-2200
Noe dies……………….………….1997
Abraham born……………………..1995
Abraham in Pre-Dynasty Egypt1896
Abraham dies ..……………………1820 … 1765 Hammurabi, King of Babylon (extols Marduk) Joseph born……………………….. 1744
Joseph Vizier[Egypt 2-3rd Dynasty]1715 … King Djoser (Zoser) 2-3rd Dynasty
Joseph dies…………….………….1634
Moses born ……………………….1546
Moses at 49 … approximate date of Rig Veda
6th Dynasty .....……….1506
Exodus ...... ……….…………..1466 …[Crombette has 1226 for this date]
David born ...... ……….…………1060
Saul reigns...... ……………………1031
David dies ...... ……………………..990
Solomon begins to
build the temple.…………986
Solomon dies .....…………………950 … Homer (9th century)
Elias taken……………………….....854 … Hesiod (8th century)
Hezekiah dies ....………………….667 … Thales (624-545)
Manasseh dies ..……….………….612 … Anaximander (611-546)
Isaiah … Anaximenes (586-526)
Babylonian captivity………………556 … Pythagoras (581-497) … Heraclitus [c 500]
Jeremiah Daniel … Anaxagoras (c 500-428) …Parmenides [c 515
Ezechiel … Democritus (c 460)
Babylonian captivity ends………..487 … Plato (427-347) Aristotle (384-322)
… Aristarchus (310-230) Euclid (c 300)
Maccabees ...... …………………..167 … Archimedes (278-212) Hellenistic period (300 BC -
Rome takes Jerusalem…………… 63 to 1453 AD in East)
The Incarnation……………………. 4 or 3 [B.C.]
Chronological Chart of Old Testament Patriarchs and the Cainite Parallels
Age at death
Adam930
Abel ------Cain
Seth912
Enos905Henoch
Cainan910Irad
Mahalaleel895Maviael
Jared162
Enoch365
Methuselah969Mathusael
Lamech777Lamech
Noe950 Ada Sella
(500 years old at the Flood)
Jabal Tubalcain
Sem600 Jubal
Arphaxed338
Sale433
Heber464
(Heber remained faithful to God at Babel) Nimrod
Phaleg239
(in whose time the
lands were divided)
Reu239
Sarug230
Nachor148
Thara150
Abraham175
The dates of the Sethite patriarchs show clearly that the longevity of men declined drastically after the Flood, whether due to climate changes or other causes is uncertain.
Sem and His Descendants, with the Lands They Settled [*]
Sem (Shem)
Elam -- Shushan
Asshur -- Assyrians
Arphaxad -- Selah -- Eber ...... Peleg -- Nahor -- Abraham -- Israel
Joktan -- list includes Sheba
Lud -- Upper Euphrates and Tigris
Aram -- Uz, North Arabia
Crombette says ‘that after the Dispersion, Sem went into the curve of the Euphrates and into the East.
Descended from the Semites are:
Hebrews
Arabs
Syrians
Assyrians, who conquered the original Hamites.
Babylonians, who conquered the original Hamites.
Persians
Ham (Cham) and His Descendants, with the Lands They Settled
Ham (Cham)
Cush ---- Seba --- South Arabia
Havilah --- East of Edom
Sabtah --- South Arabia
Raamah -- Sheba, Southwest Arabia
Dedan, Northwest Arabia
Sabtechah
Nimrod -- founded Sumerian cities
Mizraim
Ludim -- Lydiana
Anamin -- Northern Egypt -- the Philistines
Lehabim -- Lybians of Northwestern Egypt
Naphtuhim -- Egyptians of the Nile Delta
Casluhim
Caphtarim -- Island of Crete[*]
Phut
Canaan
Sidon, Cyprus and Sidon
Hetti, Hittites in Northern Syria
Jebusite, around Jerusalem
Amorite, from Egypt to Babylonia -- Hammurabi was one of their kings
Girgasite, western Palestine
Hivite, in Gibeon
Arkite, Northeast of Tripoli in Lebanon
Sinite, Phoenician coast
Arvadite, Northern Phoenicia, whaling center, and across into Atlantis and from thence
to the Americas, a very oldworld (Cf. Solange Hertz, The Battle for Amerindia)
Zemarite, also Phoenician
Hamathite, on the Orontes River
Descendants of the Hamites are:
SumeriansChinese
Hittites (from Heth)African Negroes
PhoeniciansMongols
EthiopiansAmerican Indians
EgyptiansEskimos
CanaanitesEtruscans
Japheth and His Descendants, with the Lands They Settled
Japheth
Gomer
Ashkenaz -- Indo-European
Riphath -- Indo-European
Togarmah -- Armenians in Asia Minor
Magog -- Mongols, Tartars, Parthians, Huns northeast of the Black Sea
Madai -- Medes south of the Caspian Sea
Javan -- Elishah -- Hellenic Greeks, Corsicans, and Sardinians
Tarshish -- Spain
Kittim -- Island of Cyprus
Dodanim -- Greeks in Hellespont or Rhodes
Tubal -- Northeastern Mesopotamia, and Tibarians
Neshech -- Muski
Tiras -- Western Asia Minor - notorious pirates (!)
Descendants of Japheth
Indo-EuropeansCeltic peoples
RussiansGreeks
Nordic peoplesLatins (Romans)
The Original Revelation and Primordial Tradition
In the common opinion of Church writers, the Revelation made by God to Adam and the Patriarchs who succeeded him comprised four essential components:
One God- Who created heaven and earth and all that is in them, with hints as to the trinitarian nature of God, in the name Elohim which is plural, in the specific mention of “the spirit of God that moved over the waters” (Genesis 1:2) and in the emphasis upon God’s Word in the distinction between the narrative form “God created” and the direct quotation, “God said.” This God of the Primordial Revelation is a personal God; He is neither a blind force nor an abstract entity. The primal religion is not pantheist, for it is God alone Who creates. There is no independent or intermediary power superior to or in competition with Him. He is the supreme Master of all, the Creator of everything. He is unique. There is no other God but Him.
One Law- This primordial law is implicit but unmistakable. It is a rule of conduct implanted in the heart of every man. It is the voice of conscience. It is called, in later times, the Natural Law. When Cain transgressed, God explicitly referred to it (Genesis 14:7). It is fulfilled by various prescriptions, as for example, “Increase and multiply” (Gen. 1:28).
One Worship - The law of sacrifice is a universal one. It consists in confessing one’s nothingness before God. Such is the foundation of worship. Before the Fall, worship was unbloody, perhaps transmitted as prophetic type in the priest Melchisedech (Genesis 3.14: l8-20; Psalm 110:4) who prefigures the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass under the appearances of Bread and Wine. After the Fall, the sacrifice of blood God exacted as the necessity of expiation for sin became a reality. Abel understood this but Cain did not. Cain’s worship was only one of thanksgiving which was no longer adequate. It was not acceptable to God.
(Is this perhaps what the Novus Ordo “Mass” has become with all of its emphasis upon “Eucharist” which is to say, thanksgiving, and no thought of the need for the supreme Sacrifice of Christ though now in an unbloody manner? It would seem so.)
Abel’s sacrifice is expiatory and it will therefore become part of the divine Tradition handed down through the ages.
One Prophesy - This is the Proto-Evangelium. God addresses the serpent after the Fall: “I will put enmities (plural) between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed: She shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Gen. 3 :15 ) Today this prophecy is partially fulfilled and in process of being completely so. The woman is the Ever-Virgin Mary and Her Seed is Christ. The serpent’s head is every enemy of God and ultimately Antichrist. In ancient times, this Promise and Prophecy of the Redemption of mankind through a Virgin and Her Son in the Incarnation of the Word of God in the flesh of the Virgin Mary, sustained the meditations of the men who “walked with God” because it sums up the history of the world.
Many exegetes say that this prophecy was granted by God to inspire and keep alive the Hope of men until in the fullness of time, the Redeemer should appear. Just men like Job (who lived after the Flood) meditated on these two seeds, these “enmities” which they perhaps knew only from the signs written in the stars (cf. Job 7:1; 9:8-10; 12 et passim). In any case, the Proto-Evangelium is the mainspring of the Primordial Tradition.[1]
Vaquié speaks also of a “secular tradition” that runs parallel to the divine Primordial Revelation. The source is Adam’s infused knowledge, for “God had made him this gift of infused knowledge in his state of original perfection. And it is quite clear that he was deprived of it at the time of his expulsion from the terrestrial paradise. Yet Adam did not forget what he had known, so that he was able to transmit to his descendants much information which today we would call cosmological. “It is of an order inferior to the divine Revelation about God’s nature, His law, His worship and the Promise of Redemption. As to the contents of this “secular tradition” Vaquié lists such notions as the four elements of the material creation: earth, water, air and fire, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac which provide the framework for the twelve months of the year.
These ideas, as well as those contained in the Primordial Revelation, are supremely important because they show us the original truths from which all the false religions of the world have been corrupted.
Especially is this true of the Cainite civilization that developed so soon after the Fall and expulsion from Paradise.
Cain preferred a comfortable form of worship in place of the sacrificial worship demanded by God and practiced by Abel. Cain’s envy and hatred of his brother Abel led to his total rejection of the Divine laws and worship, to his ambition to “build a better world” apart from God, and to his frenzied restlessness, the life of a fugitive and a vagabond. How much of this do we not see in the life of the modern world!
Cain'sprogeny gave rise to the main forms of artificial life, the electronic civilization that we “enjoy” today: city-dwelling at the expense of a healthy agricultural existence, as on the “family farm”; the raising of herds of animals for meat only, the invention of arts that would distract from the contemplation of God’s works in creation; and the beginnings of technology in metallurgy.[1]
Such was the wickedness of the Cainites and all those who joined them that God was provoked to cleanse the entire earth of their evil works by the global Deluge described in Genesis 6:5-13. The Cainites had not only forgotten God and the Primordial Revelation handed to them by the Adamic Tradition: they had destroyed it from amongst themselves by their wickedness. Our own times at this end of the second millennium are far too similar to theirs to be contemplated with equanimity.